If you want to win in March, you have to be able to win ugly, and the Hofstra Pride nearly learned that lesson the hard way on Saturday night against the Stony Brook University Seawolves. The Pride narrowly escaped Island Federal Credit Union Arena with a 68-65 victory, surviving a cold shooting performance and turnover-filled first half to earn their tenth consecutive victory. The Pride improved their record to 22-8 with the win, including a 15-2 mark in CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) play.
“We obviously didn’t have our best performance,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton. “But our guys still found a way to win.”
Hofstra managed to top Stony Brook without Aaron Estrada the first time these two teams met on Feb. 4, and that was essentially the case again on Saturday night. Estrada shot a season-worst 1/12 from the field and finished the contest with six turnovers in an uncharacteristically sloppy performance. Much like last time, Tyler Thomas rose to the occasion and carried the Hofstra offense to victory, as he poured in 23 points and shot a lights-out 72% from the field. Thomas has now posted his two most efficient shooting outputs of the season against the Seawolves and has asserted himself as a true late-game option for Claxton to turn to down the stretch.
“I just always try to stay aggressive,” Thomas said. “It’s a family out there, we always have each other’s back.”
Stony Brook was paced by a career day from senior guard Tyler Stephenson-Moore, who torched the Pride for a season-high 27 points on 57% shooting. Despite his dominant performance, Stephenson-Moore was kept off the scoresheet in the final four minutes of play, something that Claxton accredits to the heroic defensive efforts of Darlinstone Dubar.
“I think the MVP of the night is DStone,” Claxton said. “He took on the challenge of guarding Stephenson-Moore in the final four minutes. He came to me during a timeout and said ‘Let me guard him,’ and he shut him down.”
The Pride retained their place atop the CAA standings with Saturday’s win and can clinch the conference regular season title as well as the top seed in the CAA tournament with a win over the Northeastern University Huskies on Feb. 25, or a loss by the College of Charleston Cougars on Thursday. Hofstra has not won a regular season or postseason conference title since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season and has not played an NCAA Tournament game since 2001. With everything to play for down the stretch, Claxton and the Pride are looking to write their own history as we turn the page to March.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Lee S. Weissman
